Instinct
by The Mome Raths Outgrabe
Summary: Even at the end of the world, he and Sam couldn't seem to stop the ingrained instinct to save anyone in need of saving.


**Disclaimer: I don't own Walking Dead or Supernatural.**

 **Timeline: Pre-Walking Dead season 1, Season 7 for Supernatural so it's slightly off chronologically.**

 **A/N: Rated for blood, guts and some minor swearing, rated mostly for safety.**

 **I watched seasons 1-6 in like a week and I wrote this.**

 **This was supposed to be short it wasn't supposed to be +5,000 words- oh well.**

* * *

He was pretty sure that few were more prepared than they were when the Rugs showed up. They were well trained and fairly easily were able to dispatch them, plus they had their own arsenal. It was food that was the problem and feeding people wasn't an easy feat.

Even at the end of the world, he and Sam couldn't seem to stop the ingrained instinct to save anyone that was in need of saving. Even when most of the world seemed to be turning their backs on each other. Which is why even when they found out that Atlanta wasn't the safe haven that it was supposed to be they hadn't left. They had meant to, but group after group would roll in unsuspecting and the two of them hadn't been able to help themselves.

Most of the survivors thought that they were crazy going out there day after day, bringing more and more back from their certain deaths. But since they had all been brought in the same way they didn't have much of a leg to stand on. Owen literally. Only Bernie and Isaac had committed to their way of life and went out with them. Leaving David and Bonnie to protect the remaining 4 of them 3 children and Owen, a man with half a leg. They didn't like it when the four of them went out but they didn't complain...much.

The four of them made their way nearly silently made their way around the building looking out the windows on the twentieth floor. It was the safest building they could find that had a good view of the city just one floor up. Dean searched for a good target with a pair of binoculars looking for a good place that might still have some food. They didn't go looking for people to save, they went looking for food but always managed to run into people anyways.

Dean stole a peek at Sam who was looking focused down at the city thankfully, rather gazing vaguely an area just of the side of him. Cas had broken Sam's wall and had died before he had a chance to fix it. Sam saw stuff mostly Lucifer standing off to his side, saying who knew what stuff to get into his brother's head.

In the world before his brother's sanity would have been his number one concern. That and the leviathans. Hopefully, they were starving too or they had tried to munch on the monsters and had been poisoned. Whatever happened to them, neither was his greatest concern. It was survival. Dean spotted a store currently away from the mass of zombies that filled the streets not that it would take much to draw them but the four of them knew how to walk quietly and how to avoid drawing the monsters, even if it wasn't full proof.

"Hey guys, I got a place," he spoke.

* * *

One might think that you could grow used to being afraid but he had been doing stuff like this when he was a kid and all he had learned was how not to show it on his face. He glanced at his brother out of the corner of his eye. Bernie and Isaac were on his other side as they both knew that as good of a person and fighter Sam was, although most times was able to hide it better than most, he sometimes saw things that weren't there and when you could it was a good idea to keep a little distance between Sam and yourself. When that wasn't possible, sometimes, they grabbed onto his arm.

Sam had injured it, trying to save a girl that in the end they hadn't been able to save but everyone knew even if they didn't know what was wrong with Sam that pain would snap him back out of it. Though most times Sam beat them to it sometimes digging his fingers into his wound with such vigor that Dean would have clean and rewrap the damn thing. At this rate, it was probably never going to heal, but as it kept Sam grounded and thus alive, there wasn't anything he could really do about it.

He scanned the streets. They had already gone through most of the building rooftop access ways and anything they knew about that wasn't on the ground but the store they were scouting had no access without going on the ground. Right now neither human nor Rug was in view. Dean's fingers were wrapped around the handle of machete but his gun was ready to be pulled out at a moment's notice. It was better though not to use the gun unless there was no other choice, not in a city like Atlanta. The four of them stop and he slowly turned around the corner checking to see if the coast was clear when he heard a noise.

The four of them turn in near unison towards the sounds with their various knives and machetes at the ready. It stumbled towards them with a slow gait characteristic of the Rugs.

Rugs is what he and Sam had started to call them. At first they had called them Rugatoan since it was like kind of like a combination of Croatoan virus and a Rugaru but eventually, it had become too many syllables to say in a fight and they had shortened to Rugs.

It growled at them as it's beady eyes settled on them. The front of what used to be a woman's throat and chest was torn out, likely how she died in the first place. Isaac was the nearest to her and with just a few steps of his long legs, the woman's head went rolling along the streets of Atlanta. For a kid, he had sure picked all this up fast, much faster than a lot of the others. The four of them started walking again carefully listen to every single noise.

* * *

Eleven more Rugs met their end before they made it into the building. They were lucky they hadn't run into any of the herds, even if they knew which streets were the riskiest, there was no way of ever knowing which would be safe. Another three were in the building and all for two little bags of chips and a bag of marshmallows that would do very little to fill them up especially split eleven ways. They also found a gun with ammo, so it hadn't been a complete waste even if his stomach didn't really agree. Granted, using guns, wasn't exactly ideal or safe in a city like this.

They had just made it one street towards their base when they heard loud growling. Four heads whipped in the direction of the noise. They only tended to growl like that when food was around and they were only that loud if there was a large group of them rearing up to take some poor smuck down. The older man around the age his father would be if he was still alive looked to him, almost pleading with him to not do the stupid thing he had to know Dean was going to do anyways. Isaac glanced briefly in his direction before running towards the sounds. Sam didn't even bother glancing back. Dean and Bernie were off seconds later just barely trailing after the two. They stopped running not long after when they saw what had caught the Rugs attention.

"Shit," Dean said. There was a kid not much older than Isaac. He was smart too, smart enough to be running rather attacking the hoard that was closing in on him. The kid was fast and seemed to know where he was going but with 50 Rugs closing in it was hard dodging all of them. As Dean watched, one of the Rugs made him go down briefly before he rolled quickly to his feet. Sam's eyes finally sought his out. It took only second to know what Sam was asking.

'Is this real?' He nodded and Sam's arm that wasn't holding the machete briefly dug into the white gauze again darkening it with blood. A second later Sam leaped into the fray. Dean moved towards the kid and jumped in just seconds after.

For a long time, it was like the world slowed down. It was just him and the Rugs gray gnarled faces with bones showing as they tried to take a bite out of him. Dean lopped off head after head of the undead. Blood would splatter his face from time to time when he got too close. Soon his face was again covered in the tacky substance as worked his way towards the kid of Asian descent, who seemed to have noticed him and was trying to get to him as well.

His attention was momentarily diverted as he heard a particularly loud grunt. Isaac...No. Isaac was surrounded on all sides by Rug's brandishing his knife like it was a sword and could protect him. His eyes were determined. He wasn't like Bernie. Sam and Dean had saved Bernie, this wasn't his passion nor did he care about saving people so much as protecting Sam and Dean from dying because he felt like he owed them something.

Isaac was different. He liked the fight, he liked to fight and if anyone was saved then that was just the cherry on top. His dark hair and beat up too large army jacket he had found somewhere were all spattered in blood but the Rug's had moved closer cutting off any way of moving to any side without walking into one of them. Dean surged forwards trying to reach him but only managed to move two feet before a Rugs wanted to see if he was finger licking good.

He heard the scream as he cleaved the Rugs head off. His head flipped in the direction only for horror to grow in his stomach as he saw the young kid with a Rugs attached to his arm and as he watched another Rug bite into the back of his neck. He was just a kid. Just a kid.

Dean blinked pulling himself together. This wasn't the first person he had lost and it probably wouldn't be the last. The screaming lasted for another second before one of the Rugs dug into his throat silencing him. He fought his way to the new kid with even more vigor. He lost Isaac, he wasn't going to lose him. Five severed heads later found him by the new kid who was looking at him in shock and awe. After all, in this new world, it was, even more, dog eat dog than normal. He knew how strange it was to find someone willing to stick his neck out for a stranger especially with such a large group of Rugs.

Normally he would pull the terminator line but he didn't exactly feel like it right now.

"Come on," was all he was able to muster up and he pushed the kid in front of him. Isaac's screams were going to draw more Rugs. They had to get out of there before any more came. They set off at a run and he was right, the kid was fast. He glanced once behind to see Sam and Bernie running behind them bringing up the rear. They both knew the way back to their base so he didn't worry about losing sight of them when they went around the corner. Despite his hallucinations, he still trusted Sam to be able to get him and Bernie back. Dean overtook the kid, because the kid had no idea where he was going but he made sure that the kid kept up with him. Dean waited until they were safely on top of a building before he finally stopped. Hunching over his hands of his knees he worked on catching his breath. The Asian kid seemed to be doing the same. Bernie was the first to appear on the top of the building followed by Sam. Dean caught sight of the blood-soaked gauze briefly before looking away. He was starting to breathe more normally and he would able to stand up straight. Dean turned back to the kid whose breathing was also starting to calm.

"What's your name?" Dean spoke once he was sure that his voice would come out calm walked towards the kid.

"Glenn," he said. Dean nodded and before hitting him with the dull side of his machete and watched as the kid crumpled to the ground. Sam knew what he was doing though and caught the kid before he made contact. Sam nodded after checking for a heartbeat making sure Dean hadn't hit him too hard. They knew better than to take too many chances.

* * *

They had learned the hard way that some people showed their gratitude for saving their lives by trying to steal from them. Which was why they had knocked him out, and why they had two guards. One making sure no Rugs got in, one keeping watch over any newcomers until they all agreed to trust them. Keeping watch was easier back when there were 25 of them. But a large group that was tired of living in a city full of monsters splintered off and went to go try their luck elsewhere. Dean hadn't tried to stop them. Even if they all looked to him as a leader, he wasn't going to keep anyone here against their will.

Dean agreed to take first watch over the kid. It's not like he slept much anyway, that hadn't changed much over the years. Granted, it wasn't very interesting since he was still asleep but he had a chance to refile through his pack. Not to steal from him but to see what kind of person he was. It was mostly full of food, clothes, he had no real weapons. Guess he relied on his speed. Dean's eyes were drawn to the dark haired kid as he heard him groan and saw his eyes flutter open. It took a few moments for his eyes to focus and then a few more for his eyes to lock onto his, confusion marred his features and he still looked dazed. Being clocked with a machete would do that anyone. The low lighting probably didn't help as there were no windows and the room was lit only by lantern.

"Did you...did you hit me?" Glenn asked confused shifted slightly then grimacing. It had probably caused one hell of a headache. "But you…" he trailed off obviously having trouble thinking with the headache.

"Sorry about that," Dean said and he was, he hadn't wanted to hit the kid, but experience had taught him it was for the best. "We've saved people before and they'll steal from us or pretend to be all sweetness and apple pie and leave in the middle of the night and come back with greater numbers to steal from us. So for now, it's best if you don't know where you are."

Glenn blinked still seeming to be fighting off his headache. Dean sighed and pulled out the pill bottle. He and Sam had kept a large bottle in their bags for various injuries and headaches. It was sure useful right now and it was only half empty. He shook two pills into his hands and handed them to Glenn who eyed them with awe and reverence before snatching them up and swallowing them dry. Good, they didn't have much water, even if they had more water than food. Dean let him take his time, waiting for the pain medication to kick in.

"You saved me," Glenn spoke as he pulled himself into a sitting position gingerly and gazed up at him. Dean nodded even though it wasn't really a question. "Why?" he asked after a long moment of staring at him. "Most people wouldn't have bothered, especially if it's true that people have stolen from you,"

"It's what we do," Dean said not giving any more of an explanation than that. Glenn looked skeptical but it was the truth. Saving people, hunting things, it had always been what they did even before the world had turned to shit. Just because a lot of people have given up on things like that, turning instead to just surviving, didn't mean that they would. They had already been through shit like this. They wouldn't change just because everyone else was dealing with the same shit now. They were who they were, no matter the state of the world. Glenn looked less skeptical the more he looked at him.

"We don't have any food to spare," Dean spoke honestly. The little they had scavenged was already eaten. Dean had only been able to eat a few marshmallows. Hardly a satisfying meal. Glenn eyed his backpack. Dean would have been lying if he said he hadn't been tempted to steal the food from Glenn's pack and call it payback for saving his life, but he didn't. Glenn opened his bag probably to check to see if it was all still there and he looked surprised to see that it all was.

"I scavenge but I'm not a thief," Dean said simply, even though he had been very tempted. His stomach chose that moment to give a loud growl and Dean winced. He had never been this hungry before, which had made it even harder for him, especially knowing that Molly, Jack, and Tanner were starving as well. Glenn looked between him and the bag a few times before he took a tube of pringles out and tossed it to him.

"You should eat something." Dean caught it and mentally reminded himself that he wasn't the only person who was hungry, so he couldn't eat the whole tube himself no matter how much his stomach was begging him to. Dean nodded his thanks and tore open the packaging he managed to count out a few of the chips before shoving them into his mouth. Pizza flavored pringles had never tasted so good before. With great pain, he closed the lid. At Glenn's questioning look he said.

"I'm not the only one here who's hungry." He put the pringles away in his own pack for later. Glenn nodded seeming to understand. Dean decided in that moment that the kid wasn't too much of a threat. He didn't even have a proper weapon.

"Come on," he said standing up and jerking his head towards the door. Glenn got to his feet and slung his pack over his shoulder keeping it close to him, smart. He and Sam may not be thieves but he couldn't speak for some of the others in his group. He led him out of the little office onto the main floor. There were no windows and Dean led the way until they got to the front room which had natural light spilling from the windows lighting up the room.

"Don't step near the windows," He warned Glenn who nodded after a moment, his eyes busy looking down at the other occupants of the large room. Sam was sitting against the wall and to Dean's disappointment, they seemed to be staring at the corner of the room in horror. The older man caught his eye with sympathy. Bernie like the others had no idea what was wrong with Sam, but he looked after the both of them with fatherly concern. The others were less concerned and more uneasy about it, which is why the others sat as far away from Sam as they could. But they all knew Dean would never leave his brother and if they wanted food and protection, it came with dealing with Sam, even though he had never hurt anyone and had only ever protected them. Sometimes he hated them for how they acted around Sam like he was an IED ready to go off at any minute, but at the same time, he understood it.

Dean sighed then just made his way to his brother and touched his arm with enough force to jolt him out of whatever his hallucination was. Sam looked up at in surprise and then gratitude. His face was clean now of the Rugs blood that had spattered it. His long hair seemed to be even longer than the last time he had really looked at it.

"This is my brother Sam," he said by the way of introducing to Glenn. He pointed to the older man.

"That's Bernie," He then pointed to the first kid on the other side of the room.

"Tanner," he said pointing an 11-year-old boy, "Jack," he said pointing the 8-year-old beside him, and "Molly," he said pointing to the five-year-old girl beside them. "Jenny, he said pointing to a woman not far from them, "And Paul," he said pointing to the man with straw-colored hair beside her who grabbed his wife's hand tightly as he was being introduced. They were uncomfortable with new people around. He understood since people had stolen and hurt them in the past but he had a good feeling about Glenn and he had ignored his misgivings about most of the others and he understood that they wanted to protect their kids Molly and Tanner. "Owen's on guard duty," he said mentioning the man currently not in view.

The last person in the room was an older woman but still about a decade younger than Bernie. "And this is Abigail." Abigail was a tough old lady, hair full of silver strands with only a few still red strands peeking through. She was Jack's grandmother and despite her age seemed to be handling herself very well. She seemed to be sizing up Glenn but didn't show the open distrust that a lot of the others did. His eyes flicked to Glenn who seemed to be focused on the children more than anyone else in the room. All three were skinny, but it was the look of fatigue in their eyes and growling stomachs that probably pulled at his heart strings because he reached into his bag again and pulled out a can of beans that he handed to Dean who smiled. Beans. Real food finally.

* * *

After the beans, everyone showed a lot less open hostility towards Glenn and he even seemed to be drawn into conversations with various members of their little group. Glenn after a little while sat down beside Dean who was sitting next to Sam and his newly wrapped arm. He needed to find more gauze soon, or the next time it might get infected if there was nothing to cover it.

"What was his name?" Glenn asked somberly. Dean couldn't think of who he could possibly mean except for Isaac.

"Isaac," he spoke getting to his feet. If they were going to have this kind of conversation he didn't want to do it in front of the others. It had been hard enough telling them about Isaac, who the whole group had grown close to, much less talking about this in front of them. Glenn seemed to get it cause he got to his feet as well. Dean grabbed the lantern again and the two headed back to the little area where he had been keeping Glenn before. This time rather than lay out on the floor, Glenn sat down on the chair in the middle of the room, leaving Dean to sit across him like this was an interview, they had probably happened often in his room. Glenn looked down at the large mahogany desk which at some point had probably cost a fortune.

"I'm sorry about Isaac,"

"He knew the risks," Dean said briskly even as he thought about him. He was young, just 19. Sam had been college at that age. He could have been anything if the Rugs hadn't decided to throw his life a curve ball. But in all honesty, he probably was more himself since the illness broke out than he had ever been before.

"But he still wouldn't have-" Dean gave him a sharp look that made Glenn stop in mid-sentence. He didn't want to talk about Isaac, he had known him for three months now fought next to him nearly every day. Glenn nodded and went quiet.

"I get it. I'm part of a group as well. They're outside of Atlanta. They need supplies and food too. That's why I'm here. I scavenge for them."

"Alone?" Dean said quirking his eyebrows. What kind of group would let him go out alone with all the Rugs all over the city? It was dangerous. Very dangerous. Obviously. It's why the others had left. After today's events and more and more lately he wondered if they all should have left together as a group rather than splitting up.

"I've been here half a dozen times before. I'm fast I can get in and out easier."

"Next time bring them or at least some of them," Dean snapped. He had risked his life for him, and his brothers, Bernie and Isaac had died and he had a group of his own? Glenn shrank back a little and Dean realized he had shouted. Dean sighed.

"It's a tough ass world out there and there's strength in numbers." Glenn's eyes returned to the table. The two dealt with an awkward silence for a while before Glenn spoke again.

"What's wrong with…" he trailed off nervously but Dean knew what he was asking. New people always asked that, worried that Sam was some crazy nut job that would cut their throats in their sleep.

"He was a soldier, he has some kind of PTSD." Neither were really a lie, even if it wasn't the full truth but even after everything he doubted that people would believe the full truth. Besides, the only monsters that really matter anymore were the Rugs. All the other monsters were relics of a different age. The angels and demons had probably hidden away to see who won the war before showing their faces again. Sometimes in the middle of the night when no one was watching he wished he could do the same. But he couldn't. He was stuck in his world until he died or became like the Rugs.

"He's not dangerous," he added when he saw the apprehension in the kid's face. "Not to us at least," he corrected because Sam was still a top shelf hunter as long as his head was in the game. Glenn nodded because Glenn had to have seen how good Sam was with a machete out there. You'd have to be blind not to see that Sam had skills, and kindness. It was just his fractured mind that scared people. Even Sam got that. Though he had become more despondent lately probably due to that.

"I'm sorry," The kid said probably for asking the question. Dean shook his head trying to clear it. They had to deal with the cards they had been dealt. Did he wish that Sam didn't have Lucifer in his head riding shotgun? Of course but there was nothing he could do about it, especially now after the shit had hit the fan.

"It's alright, it is what it is," Dean responded. He made to look out the window before he forgot that there wasn't one. The two lapsed into silence again.

"What did you do before?" Glenn asked after a long awkward silence. Dean smirked, even with the Rugs running around him probably wouldn't believe him about the other monsters.

"Let's just say me and Sam...we were trained for this shit long before it happened." He could see the questions swimming in Glenn's eyes but thankfully they went unasked.

"How many people are you in your group?" Dean asked.

"Around 20," Glenn responded.

"There used to be 25 of us," Dean found himself saying. "The others left because they didn't like living in a city that was so full of monsters. They're not wrong. It's just I've been doing this for years, I'm not really sure how to stop at this point."

"Doing what?"

"Saving people, but I also saved them and I'm not sure if I could live with myself if something happened to them because I was too stubborn to leave this place or if someone dies here because we stay...Someone else dies here," Dean corrected because Isaac had died here, making a stand. He'd never say any of this in front of the others. Maybe because he knew that Glenn wasn't going to stay and so what he said to him wouldn't matter much, or maybe because Glenn was impartial. "They went to Charlotte, North Carolina, that's about 250 miles away, based on some dumbass rumor that Bailey heard. That there was a place there that was safe or that they could make it safe," Dean shook his head in disbelief, then sighed. "This city it isn't safe either. I shouldn't have split us up."

"It sounds like they left,"

"But I allowed it. I should have gone with them, rather just staying here."

"I know you just met me but I for one am glad that you stayed," Glenn said with a small smile.

"I'm glad we saved you to too, but..." he frowned as he realized something, "we can't do this anymore. We're stronger as a whole group. We have to go find them."

"Like you said, Charlotte is like 250 miles away. How do you know they made it? That they're still alive? That they even got out of the city?" Honestly, he didn't like to think about it.

"We made our way to the edge of the city, hot wired them some cars and we taught them but…" There was no way of knowing if the three cars had ever gotten to their destination. No way of knowing if they had been stopped, robbed, ran out of gas and then gobbled up by some Rugs or not. The thought sent chills down his spine, he never should have let them go alone. Honestly, he had tried not to think about it but now that the thoughts were rolling around in his head there was no stopping it.

"We have to go," he knew now with certainty.

"We will," the two turned on the spot to see Sam in the doorway. How Dean hadn't heard the door open he had no idea. For the moment he looked like the Sam he knew, not looking into corners or into things or even pressing into his wound. He made his way over to him and touched his shoulder.

"We'll go to them, become one group again. We can help them, Dean. We can save them even if we can't save everyone," Dean nodded several times.

"We should have never let them go off alone,"

"No, we shouldn't have, but we can fix it,"

"Let them know," Sam nodded and went out the door. Dean turned to Glenn who was still standing there.

"They have to be fine," because he couldn't think of the alternative. "We'll find them," he repeated again several times before he abruptly broke off.

"Do you want to come with us?" Glenn looked taken aback by the offer but after several moments shook his head.

"I have my own people," Dean nodded he suspected as much.

"I guess this is where we part ways then Glenn, maybe our paths will cross again in the future,"

"Thanks for saving me," Glenn said surprising him by giving him a brief hug.

"Maybe one day you'll return the favor," Dean said with a hint a laugh after they separated. Glenn started towards the door but not before Dean stopped him. "Oh Glenn, If you're not going to come with us, Don't tell anyone about us okay? Even if we are leaving, if people know about us they might try to take advantage of us," Glenn nodded his head in affirmative before leaving through the door.


End file.
